The Latrobe Health Assembly is proud to be supporting local author Megan Higginson’s push to improve literacy in the Latrobe Valley by introducing a Street Library to a location near you.
The Street Libraries program allows volunteers to position a small, secure box containing books that young people can easily access, freely borrow from and when finished return their book and swap it for another. The project aims to improve literacy rates within the Latrobe Valley by ensuring all children have access to suitable books.
Megan Higginson, author of The Sock Thief and Raymund and the Fear Monster tells the story of how the idea came about, after a presentation at Morwell Park Primary School. Sometime after the presentation several children recognised her in the street as being the author. The group walked back to Megan’s house where she allowed the children select some books from her collection.
“One of the children had no books in his house while the other two had a small collection However, their mother had difficulty reading and rarely read to her children,” Megan said.
Happy with her contribution to the small group of children, Megan set about stockpiling children’s books with the intention of making them freely available to local children. With the help of the Latrobe Health Assembly, Megan is about to launch the first of six Street Libraries in Latrobe Valley to support her goal of getting books into little hands.
The six Street Libraries in operation that will be maintained by volunteers are located at:
- 15 Tobruk Street, Morwell
- 1 Tobruk Court, Traralgon
- 35 Gordon Street, Traralgon
- Traralgon East Community Centre, Cameron Street, Traralgon
- 66 Elizabeth Street, Moe
- Rutherglen Road (out the front of the post office), Newborough
To officially launch the Latrobe Valley Street Libraries, Megan Higginson will be hosting a book reading outside of her own Street Library at 15 Tobruk Street, Morwell on Sunday 24 March at 11:00am with demonstrations to children to show how easy their local Street Library is to use.
The Latrobe Health Assembly would like to invite all local media to come on down and help share the awareness of the Street Libraries and play a part in getting local children into reading.
Event details:
What: Launch of the Latrobe Valley Street Libraries project
Where: 15 Tobruk Street, Morwell
When: Sunday 24 March at 11:00am
